I'm wondering if this is the correct thread for this, but I'd just like to introduce a language I made up a little while back (or to be more precise, I'm making up right now). Unfortunately, it doesn't have a name as yet.

It's an inflected, VSO (verb-subject-object) language. At first I was going for something similar (sound-wise) to Dravidian languages like Tamil or Telugu, but during the process I became more influenced by the structure of Indo-European languages (particularly Hittite with a little bit of Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit). And I'm pretty sure I was also subconsciously influenced by Tagalog and Japanese. As of now, the language has two genders (animate and inanimate - told you Hittite was an influence), six cases (nominative, accusative, dative - really a mix of dative, locative and genitive - ablative, and instrumental) and three verbal tenses (present, imperfect and perfect). Within my imaginary setting, but this language is supposed to be used by the inhabitants of a country town in the mountains and its environs.

The Sun and the North Wind were debating who is the [one] more stronger/greater [of them].And at once came a traveler who was wrapped by a cloak.The North Wind blows strongly (lit. ‘blows a great blowing’), but the traveler did not take off his cloak.The Sun shines brightly (lit. ‘shines a great shining’), and therefore as a result the traveler took off the cloak.And so therefore the North Wind admitted (lit. 'declared a word') that the Sun is more stronger/greater.

(About the acute accents: for some reason, correct stress has become quite key in this language.)

There's also a writing system - the mechanics of which is inspired by Baybayin.

As you can see, the script (the 'old' orthography), while simple enough, had a number of weaknesses: it could never distinguish between i and e and u and o (a weakness Baybayin also had), and between voiceless (p, t, k, [s]) and voiced (b, d, g, [z]) consonants. Plus, double consonants (like yy in núyya or kk in yakkána 'spear, lance') can never be rendered. Oh, and it also doesn't have accents telling you where to place stress, which probably isn't a problem if you're a speaker, but can give you quite a hard time if you're not.

The newer orthography solves much of the problems of the older one by adding more diacritics and forming conjunct consonants (much of which aren't even always used):

That leaves the third variation, which adds lines at the bottom to tell the reader where to place stress in words:

So all in all, you have at least three possible orthographies: the 'old' one (which in my setting isn't used anymore anyways - only old people and the educated can read them), the 'new' one (which is the one used commonly), and the 'scholarly' one (not so much used except by people who need to know where the stress should be).

Concerning the Official Tengwar Transcription Thread - VITo all the newbees, Welcome to TORC ! Before posting anything on this thread, READ THE INTRODUCTION. For now, I didn't have the time to update the intro, so I let you read the intro of thread #IV here.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the threads or by email (isildilme@hotmail.com - write "Tengwar" somewhere in the subject in case you fall in my junkmail, because if I don't know, I wont open the message !). Note that I don't accept transcription requests by email, you have to post them here !

You can address yourself to me in French, Spanish or English as you wish.

Special message : I have now two precious sons. They are my priorities, and an additional explanation for the delays in my answers. I WILL answer you... but you might have to wait. Thank you for your comprehension.

Rá sattásané ya-bású. (I/You/He goes to school by bus.)Rá Zímé sattásané ya-bású. (Jim goes to school by bus.)Rází sattásané ya-bású. (I went (perfect) to school by bus.)Rá ayerugála sattásané ya-bású. (I will go to school by bus tomorrow.)Rá sattásané (I/You/He goes to school / Go to school!)Rá (I go/He goes/You go / Go!)

Isináka y'-Apaná y'-Araká-lu ya-Waríl'-lu sírála 'mmín. (In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.)

P.S. Astute folks might have noticed that I made a mistake in the second script example. (Oops.) The order should be:

A I/(E) U/(O) Pa/(Ba) Ta/(Da) Ma Na La Ra Ka/(Ga) Sa/(Za) Ha Ya Wa

The writing system actually has a cursive (the 'vulgar', i.e. the common) form. It mainly follows the newer orthography but there's really no consensus on how to write double consonants (like yy). You can notice four possibilities below.

Arlaug wrote:Indeed. Not only are you free to compose the phonetich and morphologic logic of your language, but put it in a scripted system of signs. And Professor did it more than once.

Exactly. To be precise, this is really my third attempt at conlanging. I came up with the first two while I was imagining this island subcontinent on the Atlantic Ocean (like Britain really, only more Continental). The first (the one I focused on) was really just an imaginary Romance language modelled on Spanish and Galician-Portuguese. (The fun part there was I made up 'dialects' - there was even one which is basically a mishmash of a Romance language with a Celtic one.)* The other was 'original' but I never got beyond making up a few words. This is really the first time I made up a conlang from scratch and managed to develop beyond a few words.

* The conceit being that there were waves of migrations/invasions in the subcontinent, just like in Europe: the Celts, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Germanic tribes (specificially, the Suebi and the Visigoths - while IRL the Suebi were defeated by the Visigoths and their territory incorporated into the Visigothic kingdom, I had the scenario where the Suebi made said subcontinent their last stronghold), and finally the Umayyads(although unlike Spain they never managed to take over the subcontinent).

Xandarien wrote:May I ask if this intended for usage in a novel or similar?

Not as such - for now at least. (It ain't gonna be a novel, that's likely. I don't have writing skills whatsoever. ) Well, I was trying to develop this 'fantasy' scenario and I just wanted to hear for myself how the people would speak.

I put 'fantasy' in quotes here because while it's a world different from ours, it isn't really pure fantasy because all the gods, heroes, and monsters of legend have either become extinct or have withdrawn themselves from mortal sight, surviving only in the stories and the legends of the people. In other words, it's a fantasy world with the fantasy almost completely faded away into myth. (If we're compare it to Middle-Earth, my own world's probably well into the Fourth Age.) So it's not a swords and magic-type of world - well, maybe swords are still involved - but more like a gritty pastiche of ancient cultures full of dirt and disease and real-life problems.

This is brilliant! So do you actually know all those languages you referenced?

My friend is writing a novel, and she asked if I could help her with the language. I only know English, Sindarin, a little Spanish, a minute bit of Chinese, and… that's pretty much it. How do you go about creating a conlang? Do you start with the grammar or the phonology? What are some key cultural aspects to focus on when determining what their important words and ideas would be?